Poppy Devey Waterhouse murder: Ex-partner jailed for life

The court was told Atkinson had failed to come to terms with their relationship ending

A man who repeatedly stabbed his former girlfriend in a jealous rage has been jailed for life for her murder.Joe Atkinson attacked 24-year-old Poppy Devey Waterhouse with a kitchen knife at the flat they shared in Leeds.Described as a "prodigiously gifted mathematician", she had more than 100 injuries, including some 70 knife wounds, Leeds Crown Court was told.Atkinson, 25, who admitted murder, was told he will serve a minimum of 15 years and 310 days.Poppy Devey-Waterhouse worked as an analyst for William HillIn a victim impact statement, her mother Julie Devey said: "I kept scraping my hands across the floorboards where she had been left screaming and dying."I just wanted to scoop her up and save her."She added: "I now live my life with a split screen. One half I can see the now, and on the other half that horrific scene."Latest news and stories from YorkshireThe court was told the pair, who met at Nottingham University, had been together for three years but by late 2018 they had broken up at the request of Miss Devey Waterhouse, who was originally from Frome in Somerset.But prosecutors said Atkinson had failed to come to terms with the separation.The court was told how, in the early hours of 14 December, he burst into the flat that they still shared at The Avenue and attacked her.Jason Pitter, prosecuting, said: "Poppy Devey Waterhouse was a prodigiously talented mathematician - who was described as brilliant and beautiful - who, at the age of 24, had her whole life ahead of her."It was a life cruelly taken away from her just before Christmas last year, because this defendant realised he was not going to be a part of this future."FromeLeeds

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